


Is it later yet?

by peccadilloes



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Bisexual Steve Harrington, Coming Out, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-24 01:10:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20017798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peccadilloes/pseuds/peccadilloes
Summary: After talking with Robin in the bathroom, Steve comes out to the whole crew. It doesn't matter as much as he thinks it does.





	Is it later yet?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sunshadows](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunshadows/gifts).



Steve had been wondering for a while now what the flaw in him was, what had made him so conquesting and mean. When people were weaker than him it was easy to show off, but after knowing Jonathan it had become very clear to Steve that his understanding of what constituted weakness and strength was confused. His sense of how others perceived him, Steve came to realize, was also confused. "Am I a joke?" He'd asked Robin after another brutal dismissal by a set of college girls at the Scoops counter. "Probably," she'd said.

Now, post-vomit, it was all shockingly clearer: his hair was her necklaces, her, sneakers, the way she painted her nails. "You say it with the way you look," he said after mocking Tammy Thompson's terrible voice.

"So do you," Robin said.

Certainly Steve had felt--some things at times, but no guy he knew was a guy he wanted.

"It doesn't matter if you don't know anyone yet," Robin said, sensing this. "You will. Maybe not in Hawkins--" They both giggled. "But one day, I bet you will."

"You too," Steve said.

Then the kids burst in.

*

It wasn't the drugs or El getting the gross goo thing out of her leg wound or anything like that, more just the relief of seeing every body after the ordeal with the doctor and maybe knowing it was going to be really challenging and scary to get through what was about to happen. They were all standing around in little clumps, halfway between recovering and plotting.

"Also, I like guys. Too. And girls. I like both."

Dustin didn't miss a beat. When the kid was in his nerd zone, he made connections really fast and with pure glee. "So now I have twice as many people to find somebody you like. Your Suzie."

The kid was basically giving himself a high five.

Erica opened her mouth to say who knows what then stopped herself. Steve could see the facts swirling in her brain, everything shew wanted to say about everything. Statistics, citations. She looked at Dustin and nodded in agreement. "We can discuss this over ice cream," she concluded.

Nancy had that squinty smirk look on her face, the one she had almost all the time. Her thinking face.

"You broke my heart, Nance," Steve said.

"He was like this before you," Robin added.

Nancy smiled her tight little smile, "You broke my heart, too, Steve Harrington."

Jonathan looked at Will, then looked at Steve, then looked at Will again. The rest of the kids had that teeth-bared, eyes up look that signified there must've been something awkward that had happened recently. Will was an unspoken secret, but he was also still more of a kid than any of them. But maybe he just seemed that way because he was hiding it. Jonathan looked at Steve again, a little desperately.

Steve winked. "You know, it's fine," he said, "We had this heart-to-heart in the bathroom after the Russians, I puked my guts out, and I feel like I get myself now. All these things that had been going on with me, why I was so mean--"

"Oh my god," Hopper said.

Steve gulped.

"Can you children please deal with this later? There is something going _on_ here, and we have to focus."

Will smarted. "That's what I said," he added, quietly.


End file.
